Death Watch: A Future Danger?

UPDATE: On Jan. 17 Collin County stayed Kosoul Chanthakoummane’s execution until July 19. Jason Clark, director of public information at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, confirmed the date change to the Chronicle on Jan. 19. The stay was delivered one week before Chanthakoummane’s scheduled lethal injection on Jan. 25.

ORIGINAL POST: Kosoul Chanthakoummane is the second Texan to face state-sanctioned death this January. With no appeals pending, he is to be executed on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

In Oct. 2007, Chanthakoummane, now 36, was convicted of capital murder for a killing that occurred during a botched robbery. McKinney real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker was the victim. According to legal documents, Chanthakoummane entered a model home where Walker was working in the summer of 2006, struck her several times with a planter, then stabbed her repeatedly and bit her neck. Collin County prosecutors argued that Chanthakoummane attacked Walker in an attempt to steal her jewelry. Chanthakoummane was on parole at the time of the attack.

At trial, Chanthakoum­ma­ne's counsel acknowledged their client's guilt and fought to secure him life in prison to no avail. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the sentencing in April 2010. Chan­tha­koum­mane filed both state and federal petitions for relief arguing that because the missing jewelry was never recovered, prosecutors failed to prove the murder resulted from a botched robbery; that the trial court refused to properly define terms of his "future dangerousness"; and that jurors were not briefed on specific laws pertaining to the selection of the death penalty. Appeals attorney Carlo D'Angelo claimed that his client's right to counsel and right to due process were repeatedly violated. Both requests were denied.

Last Febru­ary, the 5th Cir­cuit Court of Appeals denied Chantha­koummane's appeal, stating that his requests "failed to raise a debatable question as to the effectiveness of either his trial counsel or state habeas counsel." Six months later, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for writ of certiorari. His execution date was set days later. D'Angelo did not return the Chronicle's request for comment. Chantha­koum­mane will be the 540th Texan executed since the state's reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

Reasonable Doubts

After two stays in 2016, Terry Edwards, 43, is scheduled to follow Chanthakoum­ma­ne to Huntsville's chamber on Thurs­day, Jan. 26. Edwards was convicted of capital murder in 2003. Prosecutors alleged that he shot his former Subway co-workers Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin during an attempt to rob the fast food restaurant with his cousin, Kirk Edwards.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn first denied Edwards' efforts for relief in Aug. 2014. The Supreme Court refused to hear his case the following year. In April 2016, however, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office agreed to stay Edwards' execution (scheduled for that May) because his counsel ended all contact with him – without notification – upon receiving the Supreme Court's decision. Edwards wrote in a March 2016 letter to Lynn: "My plea to you is that you please look into this matter as I believe you and your court could get a response where as I can't. Please contact me immediately if you find out anything. As of today I have 10 weeks to fight for my life."

In June, new attorneys Jennifer Merrigan and Joseph Perkovich, of the Phillips Black Project, were appointed to Edwards' case. Three months later, Dallas County prosecutors delayed Edwards' lethal injection a second time so that his new counsel could properly review the trial and court proceedings. Merrigan has spent the past five weeks in a back-and-forth with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, trying to file an "out of time opposition" for Edwards in hopes of getting a forensic expert to review the original findings from the case. On Jan. 10, Edwards' counsel filed a 631-page memorandum asking to reopen the case. Included is a statement from Edwards' appellate attorney, Richard L. War­droup, acknowledging that three months after filing for relief, he accepted a full-time position with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and "generally stopped work on my cases in order to dedicate my time to TCDLA."

The memorandum also expresses concerns with the crime scene and forensics reports – most notably, that the State's negative testing for gunshot residue on Edwards' hands, taken "minutes" after the shooting, was never presented before the jury. Instead, the filing claims that during the trial's cross-examination of the trace evidence, the "prosecutor elicited false and misleading testimony that he then used against Mr. Edwards."

Also included are statements from Edwards' family and friends – including Tommy Walker's ex-girlfriend and mother of his children – defending Edwards' character and arguing his innocence. In fact, several family members express belief that Edwards' cousin Kirk – who pleaded guilty to robbing the Subway and is currently eligible for parole – was responsible for the shootings. Judge Lynn has ordered an expedited response from the TDCJ after Merri­gan's filing of the sizable memorandum. On Jan. 13, Edwards' attorneys filed a motion to stay Edwards' execution.

Elsewhere in Livingston …

• The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to hear the case of death row inmate Erick Davila and is expected to hold oral arguments by April. Davila, on death row for the 2008 double homicide of 47-year-old Annette Stevenson and her 5-year-old granddaughter, claims that a trial mistake pertaining to improper jury instruction, and the subsequent failure of Davila's state appellate lawyer to raise the original issue during his state petition for habeas corpus, have improperly landed him on death row.

• Williamson County Judge Donna King approved a defense attorney's request to hire DNA and fingerprint analysts for a capital murder case currently pending in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Steven Thomas was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of 73-year-old Mildred McKinney in 1980. His appellate attorneys are arguing that "the DNA evidence presented at Mr. Thomas' trial indicates that at least some of that evidence was false."